Fockea sinuata buds and flowers

    Fockea sinuata buds and flowers
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Louis Jordaan

    The Fockea sinuata buds are widest where the narrowly pointed sepal tips reach around the projectile-like, cone-tipped bodies.

    The corolla base in the open flower is a bell-shaped tube or cup, quite short with even shorter sepals clasping its lower end which is pale, dull creamy in colour. The petal lobes contrast in dark brown. Little signs of petal rotation or spiralling can be detected at this stage of floral development. 

    Fockea coronas are complex, in this species arising from the mouths of the corollas that here spread their five slightly out-curved, finger-like lobes. The staminal column resides in the centre of the corona, five thread-like white to pale pink corona lobes spreading around it in the company of several lesser protrusions. The stamens and styles of the bisexual flower are tiny in the flower centre.

    Some of the straight, rod-like leaves show the little developed, sinuate or wavy aspect on their fleshy margins (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; http://bihrmann.com; http://fresnocss.com; https://worldofsucculents.com).

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